Tailors and dressmakers retire their pincushions as US demand for
skilled sewers grows
[April 06, 2026] By
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
NEW YORK (AP) — Hunched over a sewing machine, Kil Bae is hemming a
dress inside his Manhattan tailor shop when a new customer stops by with
a vintage Tommy Hilfiger jacket he wants taken in.
The modeling agent paid $20 at a thrift store for his reversible bomber
style that's plaid on one side and red on the other. He's willing to
spend $280 to have it slimmed down. Alteration requests with such a
price disparity would have seemed odd a few years ago, the tailor says,
but are helping to keep the bobbins bobbing at his one-man shop, 85
Custom Tailor.
Bae carefully examines the cotton jacket before moving in to pin it,
circling the customer like a sculptor with a chisel. He started training
as a tailor at age 17, in his native South Korea. Now 63, he's part of a
shrinking breed in the U.S., where professional sewers, dressmakers and
tailors are aging out of the workforce as their services find fresh
demand.
Shoppers who grew up on disposable fast fashion are enlisting tailors
and seamstresses to give off-the-rack purchases a custom fit or personal
flair, to revive secondhand finds or to extend the lives of their
wardrobes, according to fashion industry experts. Weight-loss drugs like
Zepbound and Wegovy mean more Americans are seeking adjusted waistbands,
tapered sleeves and other types of resizing, Bae said.
“I recommend this job to young people because this one cannot be AI’d,”
Bae said, noting artificial intelligence is automating pattern making
but so far can't replicate a tailor's handiwork. “Different bodies.
Different shape. They cannot copy like this. If I close this door, I can
go out and find another one.”
But like engraving, repairing musical instruments and many other skilled
trades, creating and fitting garments to individual specifications
hasn't attracted enough entry-level workers over the years to replace
the professionals retiring their pincushions after decades of performing
their craft.
An aging occupation
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated almost two years ago there
were fewer than 17,000 tailors, custom sewers and dressmakers working in
business establishments nationwide, a 30% decline from a decade earlier.
Including self-employed individuals and people working in private
households, the median age for all sewers, dressmakers and tailors was
54 last year, 12 years older than the median for the entire employed
population, according to the bureau.
The income that a proficiency with needle and thread commands relative
to the skills needed and the physical toll of bending over detailed work
for hours likely discourages teenagers and young adults from heeding
Bae's advice, fashion industry experts said.
The mean annual wage tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers earned as of
May 2024 was $44,050 a year, compared to $68,000 for all workers,
according to BLS calculations.
“Most of fashion training is really aimed at mass production, not
spending time in a shop handmaking a garment,” said Scott Carnz, the
provost of LIM College, a for-profit college that offers degrees in
disciplines from the business side of fashion. “The work is also
tedious.”
Online job postings for tailors, dressmakers and sewers have remained
fairly stable, according to Cory Stahle, an economist with the research
arm of jobs site Indeed. Between February 2020 and the end of the same
month this year, advertised openings decreased by roughly 2%, while
postings for both marketing and software jobs declined by nearly 30%, he
said.
“There is a kind of a craftsmanship ... that I think is an important
piece that we can’t ignore,” Stahle, who focuses on the U.S. labor
market, said.
America's skilled sewers
Immigrants with and without permanent legal status, refugees and
naturalized citizens have powered America's garment industry for well
over a century.
An analysis of recent census data by the Migration Policy Institute
found about 40% of tailors, dressmakers and sewers were foreign-born,
according to Julia Gelatt, associate director of the nonpartisan think
tank's U.S. Immigration Policy Program. The biggest shares came from
Mexico, South Korea, Vietnam and China, she said.
[to top of second column] |
Tailor, Kil Bae, poses for a photo inside his shop on Friday, March
27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
 To address a worsening labor
shortage, the fashion industry is looking to create a new generation
of master tailors.
Nordstrom, North America’s largest employer of tailors and
alteration specialists, teamed up with New York's Fashion Institute
of Technology to launch a nine-week program in advanced sewing and
alteration techniques.
“Customarily, tailoring has never been part of the American skill
set,” said FIT instructor and Broadway costume builder Michael
Harrell, who teaches the course.
Retailers see a growing market
The fashion institute received 200 applications for the inaugural
cohort of 15 students, who started in October and received
certificates of completion in February, said Jacqueline Jenkins, the
executive director of the school's Center for Continuing and
Professional Studies.
The hands-on training was designed to prepare participants to work
at Nordstrom. The luxury department store chain employs 1,500 people
to provide tailoring and alternations, from hemming jeans and
repairing rips to fitting suits and reworking evening gowns.
Ten members of the first class were hired or are in the process of
being hired, Marco Esquivel, Nordstrom’s director of alterations,
said.
“We owe it to the broader industry to ensure that this is an art
form that exists for years and years to come and continues to serve
customers both within our walls as well as outside,” Esquivel said.
Meanwhile, other retailers are expanding their tailoring services
because of demand.
Brooks Brothers, a luxury brand that has made custom men’s clothes
since the 1800s, tested a similar service for women at five stores
last year. This year, it expanded bespoke women's tailoring to 40
more stores. Prices start at $165 for shirts and $1,398 for suits,
the company said.
No one to take over
Back at 85 Custom Tailor, Bae asked more than once if the customer
with the Tommy Hilfiger jacket was certain he wanted to proceed with
the alterations. Jonathan Reiss, 33, was sure. He said he planned to
wear the jacket often.
“I think I fell victim to buying cheap stuff, and then you realize
it just falls apart or shrinks or it just doesn’t last long,” Reiss
said.
Bae has a son who's a year older than Reiss. He tried to persuade
him to go into tailoring. The son used to work with computers and
then opened a bagel shop.
“Young people. They just want to find a job in computers,” Bae said.
“I think that’s too boring. I think this is very interesting. Every
time, I am drawing in my head. I am like an artist.”
Bae trained under his older sister and brother at their custom
apparel shop about 93 miles (150 kilometers) from Seoul. After five
years, he moved to South Korea's capital to work on custom orders
and samples for various companies. He moved to the New York City
area, where he worked as a pattern maker for Ralph Lauren, Donna
Karan and other designer brands.
He opened his own shop in Connecticut in 2011, but the COVID-19
pandemic forced him to close after a decade. He reopened in his
current location a year later.
He uses three different sewing machines: a basic one, another for
for heavy materials like denim and leather, and an overlock machine,
which cuts, trims, and finishes fabric edges simultaneously.
Bae said he intends to keep working as long as his hands stay steady
enough.
“I'm always learning,” he said.
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